Can i move my old HDD to a new computer and keep programs as a slave drive?

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Miuna88

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Feb 10, 2017
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Hi,

Im looking at buying a new computer which will be running windows 10, my current system runs 7, i was wondering if i take me current HDD out and run it as a slave drive (using a new SSD for my windows 10 primary drive), would i be able to retain and run programs from the slave drive on my main drive? Essentially my current drive has a lot of programs which take a long time to set up and such and i really don't want to spend weeks installing them again and if i can run them from my slave it would save time.

Equally i know i can upgrade 7 to 10 but the result of running programs from the slave drive is my ultimate goal, is this possible or just a dream?
 
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A
First of all...expunge the word "slave" from your "computerese" vocabulary in the context of the SATA drive you would like to install in your new PC to run a different OS. That drive is NOT a "slave". We refer to a slave only in the context of the old IDE-PATA HDDs - not SATA disks. Capiche?

Now as to your objective...

It's a possibility, possibly a viable one if...
A. Both the old & new systems are Intel-based or both are AMD-based.
B. Neither system is an OEM PC; they're both self-built or custom-built using generic components.

The above are not *absolute* requirements, but they're positive indications of a potentially successful transfer in our experience.

We're assuming the new PC you will be working with is a desktop PC...
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Xibyth

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Mar 22, 2014
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Generally yes, however some applications require registry entries to work properly. This isn't normally a problem, however Windows 10 and 7 have different kernels, so the entries my not translate. In some cases this may cause issues as simple as the application failing to launch with or without any errors, or more severe cases it can cause a bluescreen, corruption of the registry (this is really bad), and general inconvenience of occasionally booting the wrong OS.

In short, you can try, but a cannot recommend it. Really it's a matter of whether you deem it worth the extra effort in the end. I do, so I also keep a full offline installer of any applications and a text file (encrypted) with all of my activation keys on an external hard drive. Saves a lot of time and energy, this I totally suggest.
 
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Miuna88

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Feb 10, 2017
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Does sounds a bit risky there.
Would it help if i updated my windows 7 installation to windows 10 before getting the new system and tried the same procedure (so still using this drive as a slave with a new SSD as my primary) but this would be a slave running 10 instead of 7, would this help in anyway or would similar problems arise? I have no major issue upgrading to 10, i just never liked 10's appearance change which was the main reason i reverted back but if it would help solve the issue, i would do the upgrade.
 
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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First of all...expunge the word "slave" from your "computerese" vocabulary in the context of the SATA drive you would like to install in your new PC to run a different OS. That drive is NOT a "slave". We refer to a slave only in the context of the old IDE-PATA HDDs - not SATA disks. Capiche?

Now as to your objective...

It's a possibility, possibly a viable one if...
A. Both the old & new systems are Intel-based or both are AMD-based.
B. Neither system is an OEM PC; they're both self-built or custom-built using generic components.

The above are not *absolute* requirements, but they're positive indications of a potentially successful transfer in our experience.

We're assuming the new PC you will be working with is a desktop PC. Furthermore, that both the drive containing the Win 10 OS & the drive containing the Win 7 OS are MBR-partitioned.

After you would install the old Win 7 drive in the new system, you would power-up the PC and access the boot menu using the appropriate F key or other key as designated by the motherboard's instructions. You would select the Win 7 OS from the boot menu. Hopefully the system will boot to that OS. If it does it's likely you will have to install drivers from the motherboard's driver installation CD.

Now if you're successful in having this dual-boot system you will need to activate the Win 7 installation probably including the necessity of purchasing a new license for that OS. Are you aware of this?

Now understand this...
If the transfer as described above of the OS to the new PC fails, *usually* there's no harm done to the transferred drive in the form of corrupted files or any other negative implications. BUT there's always a chance (slight as it may be) that @!*% can happen and the transferred disk is corrupted in such a fashion that when it's returned to the "old" system it fails to boot. That is why we ALWAYS recommend that before undertaking a transfer such as described above the user FIRST clone the contents of that drive to another disk so that in the event of such a problem he/she has a fallback position.
 
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Scott_130

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Dec 29, 2016
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Yes, It is possible however programs some time need the exact hardware to run and a few may not be compatible depending on what OS it is. Also some times they may store files on other drives causing corruption.
 
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Xibyth

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Mar 22, 2014
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It is possible, but again no guarantees, you can always attempt it but you may need to reinstall some things.
 
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